******************************************************************** * IBM ServeRAID monolithic driver and utility program diskette, * * version 3.50 * ******************************************************************** This README file contains the instructions needed to install and use the ServeRAID monolithic driver (CMRAID) device driver and utility program. NOTES: 1. The files on this diskette are for use only with an IBM Netfinity ServeRAID-3H Ultra2 SCSI Adapter installed in an IBM Netfinity 7000-M10. See section "1.0 About the Class Monolithic ServeRAID Device Driver" below for a description of the device driver. 2. See the README file on the "IBM ServeRAID BIOS/Firmware Update Diskette" for descriptions of the current ServeRAID diskettes and for detailed information about the changes and enhancements provided with each version of the IBM ServeRAID BIOS, Firmware, and Configuration Utility Program. For more information about IBM ServeRAID and server products, visit http://www.pc.ibm.com/netfinity on the World Wide Web. ____________________________________________________________________ CONTENTS ________ 1.0 About the IBM ServeRAID monolithic driver ... 1.10 Hardware and Software Requirements ... 1.20 Supported Software Functions and Features ... 1.30 Unsupported Software, Hardware, and Features 2.0 Installation Instructions ... 2.10 Installing CMRAID while Installing Windows NT 4.0 ... 2.20 Installing CMRAID after Installing Windows NT 4.0 ... 2.30 Removing or Disabling the CMRAID Device Driver 3.0 Performance Tuning 4.0 Using the CMRAID and IPSRAIDN Miniport Device Drivers ... 4.10 Registry-Key Settings ... 4.20 Switching between the CMRAID and IPSRAIDN Device Drivers 5.0 Trademarks and Notices ____________________________________________________________________ 1.0 About the IBM ServeRAID monolithic driver _________________________________________________________ The IBM ServeRAID monolithic driver (CMRAID) is designed to help increase efficiency when running Windows NT in a transaction- oriented environment. Multiprocessing environments where high CPU utilization and high disk I/O are typical might benefit from using this device driver. A version of this device driver was used in the TPC-C benchmarks recently conducted with the IBM Netfinity 7000-M10. A typical environment where this device driver might increase throughput consists of the following: o CPU utilizations greater than 98% o Two or more ServeRAID-3H adapters o Forty or more physical drives attached to the ServeRAID-3H adapters o Total disk-transfer operations per ServeRAID-3H adapter that exceed 800 operations per second Be sure to thoroughly analyze your specific environment before you install this device driver. Although this device driver can perform more efficiently and provide better throughput in a transaction-oriented environment, it might not increase the speed of operation. 1.10 Hardware and Software Requirements ----------------------------------------- You need the following hardware to use the CMRAID device driver: o IBM Netfinity 7000-M10 o IBM Netfinity ServeRAID-3H Ultra2 SCSI Adapter You need the following software to use the CMRAID device driver: o Operating system software: o Windows NT Server 4.0 and service pack 4 (or later) NOTE: Windows NT 5.0 is not supported. o IBM ServeRAID software and diskettes: o Firmware: Flashed to version 3.50 or higher o BIOS: Flashed to be in sync with the firmware version o Additional support diskettes needed include: o ServeRAID Device Driver and Utility Program Diskette o ServeRAID Administration and Monitoring Utility Program NOTE: You must configure the ServeRAID adapter prior to installing the CMRAID device driver. 1.20 Supported Software Functions and Features ----------------------------------------------- The files on this diskette provide support for the following functions and features: o Control Panel applet for tuning the device driver parameters o Text-Mode Setup o GUI-Mode Setup using the SCSI-Adapter applet in the Control Panel o ServeRAID Administration and Monitoring Utility Programs, hereafter referred to as the WIN32-Based utility programs 1.30 Unsupported Software, Hardware, and Features -------------------------------------------------- The CMRAID device driver does not provide support for the following: o Windows NT 5.0 o IBM Netfinity System Management o IBM Netfinity High-Availability Cluster Solution o IBM ServeRAID WIN32-Based Administration and Monitoring Utility Program in the client/server mode o SCSI devices for removable media, such as a CD-ROM drive NOTE: You must attach SCSI CD-ROM drives and similar devices to a different (non-ServeRAID) SCSI controller. This limitation applies only if you install a SCSI removable-media device. o Windows NT software-based Disk Fault-Tolerant device driver NOTE: The current device driver release does not support volumes and stripe sets, disk mirroring, and disk-stripe sets with parity. However, the IBM ServeRAID adapter does provide these RAID level-0, RAID level-1, and RAID level-5 functions. o After installing the device driver, you must restart (reboot) the system to use the ServeRAID WIN32-Based utility programs. The WIN32-Based utility programs enable you to create or delete disk arrays. Each array can consist of one or more physical drives, and each array can contain one or more logical drives. After you reboot the system, each partition is assigned a drive letter under Windows NT. You can change the drive letter assignment using the Windows NT Disk Administrator. NOTE: When using the ServeRAID logical-drive migration (LDM) features, you might need to reboot the server to see the results of the LDM operation. o CMRAID is a class monolithic device driver that operates on sector-sized transfers to and from hard disks. The CMRAID device driver is not a SCSI device driver, but it does use the Windows NT SCSI-Adapter applet in the Control Panel for its GUI-Mode Setup. If you install the CMRAID device driver using something other than the SCSI-Adapter applet, the device driver name will not appear in the SCSI-Adapter applet. You can use the Devices applet in the Control Panel to disable or confirm the status of the CMRAID device driver. o If you use the SCSI-Adapter applet in the Control Panel to install the CMRAID device driver on a system that has no ServeRAID device drivers installed, you must initialize the device driver by rebooting the system when the GUI installation is complete. NOTE: You will not be prompted to reboot the system. o Switching between CMRAID and IPSRAIDN must be done carefully. Both device drivers can not be operational at the same time. Because of this, you must ensure proper configuration before attempting to switch between the device drivers. In the worst case, a boot failure will occur. If this happens, watch during startup for a message to press the Space bar to use a previous version of setup. When the message appears, press the Space bar and NT will use a previous version of the registry-key settings. See section "4.0 Using the CMRAID and IPSRAIDN Miniport Device Drivers" for more information. ____________________________________________________________________ 2.0 Installation Instructions ______________________________ This section provides the instructions needed to configure the ServeRAID adapter and to install the CMRAID device driver. 2.10 Installing CMRAID while Installing Windows NT 4.0 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Use these Text-Mode Setup instructions to install the CMRAID device driver on a server that does not already have Windows NT installed. NOTES: ----- A. Non-ServeRAID SCSI or IDE adapters might appear in a different order when using Text-Mode Setup. Normally, Windows NT displays adapters in the order that BIOS initialized them. After you install the CMRAID device driver, the adapters will appear before any of the storage devices. B. The installation program requires a formatted partition on the first hard disk in the system. C. During Text-Mode Setup, Windows NT will refer to the ServeRAID adapter as "Unknown Adapter". You can safely ignore this message. To install the CMRAID device driver: 1. Use the instructions provided in the ServeRAID user's guide to initialize the ServeRAID adapter and create at least one array. 2. Insert the Windows NT 4.0 CD-ROM in the CD-ROM drive; then, turn on the system. NOTE: If you have not already done so, use the instructions provided with Windows NT to create the three Windows NT installation diskettes. 3. Insert the Windows NT Installation Diskette 1 into the diskette drive; then, restart the server. 4. Use the instructions that appear on the screen and the following information and instructions to install Windows NT and the CMRAID device driver. 5. Select Yes when prompted to scan for mass-media. NOTE: The installation program will require a miniport device driver. 6. The installation program will scan the system for installed adapters. When the scan completes: a. Select "S" to "Configure Additional SCSI Adapters". b. Select "Other" from the list of SCSI adapters. c. When the "Insert Manufacturer-supplied support disk" prompt appears, insert the IBM ServeRAID monolithic driver diskette in the diskette drive. d. Select "IBM ServeRAID monolithic driver" and then press Enter. NOTES: ----- A. The installation program will prompt for the Windows NT Installation Diskette 3. B. When Setup provides a list of available (logical) disks and asks you to select a boot partition, it requires that the first hard disk on the first adapter in the system has a formatted partition. If such a partition does not exist, Setup will prompt you to create one. Because the CMRAID device driver always displays its own devices first, the first hard disk in the system might be listed after the ServeRAID devices. Remember, the ServeRAID adapter will appear as "Unknown Adapter". 7. Follow the instructions that appear on the screen to complete the installation. These instructions will include providing the IBM ServeRAID monolithic driver diskette when prompted during the copy operation. 8. The Text-Mode Setup is complete. Restart the server. 9. After Windows NT is installed, open a command-prompt window. 10. Copy the CMRAID.CPL file from the IBM ServeRAID monolithic driver diskette to the SYSTEM32 directory. For example, type: copy a:cmraid.cpl \winnt\system32\ 11. Continue with section "3.0 Performance Tuning". 2.20 Installing CMRAID after Windows NT is installed ------------------------------------------------------- Use the instructions in this section to install the CMRAID device driver on a server that is already running Windows NT. NOTE: This procedure will disable the existing IPSRAIDN ServeRAID device driver. You can not use the CMRAID and IPSRAIDN device drivers simultaneously. See section "4.0 Using the CMRAID and IPSRAIDN Miniport Device Drivers" for more information. To install the CMRAID device driver: 1. Insert the IBM ServeRAID monolithic driver diskette in the diskette drive. 2. Log on as Administrator; then, double-click on "My Computer". 3. Double-click on "Control panel". 4. Double-click on "SCSI adapters". 5. Select the "Drivers" tab. 6. Click on "Add". 7. Click on "Have Disk" and then click on "OK". 8. Click on "OK" when the "IBM ServeRAID monolithic driver" is highlighted. 9. Follow the instructions that appear on the screen. 10. When the device driver installation process completes, restart Windows NT. 11. Continue with section "3.0 Performance Tuning". 2.30 Removing or Disabling the CMRAID Device Driver ---------------------------------------------------- This section contains the instructions needed to remove the CMRAID device driver. o If you used the SCSI adapter applet in the Control Panel to install the CMRAID device driver, you can use the SCSI adapter applet to remove or disable the device driver. o If you installed the CMRAID device driver during the initial text mode setup of Windows NT, the CMRAID device driver will not appear in the SCSI adapter applet. If this is the case, you can use the Devices applet in the Control Panel to disable the CMRAID device driver and to confirm that the device driver will not load when you restart Windows NT. NOTE: If CMRAID supports the boot partition, you must install the ServeRAID IPSRAIDN miniport device driver before you restart the server. See section "4.0 Using the CMRAID and IPSRAIDN Miniport Device Drivers" for more information. To use the Devices applet in the Control Panel to disable or to confirm that the CMRAID device driver is disabled: 1. Double-click on "Devices". 2. Scroll to CMRAID. 3. Click on the "Startup" button. 4. Select "Disabled" and/or "Confirm Disabled". 5. Restart the server. ____________________________________________________________________ 3.0 Performance Tuning _______________________ After you install the CMRAID device driver, you can use the CMRAID Configuration Utility Program in the Control Panel or the Registry Editor to tune two of the CMRAID device driver parameters. If these register settings do not exist or can not be found during installation, default settings are used. NOTE: The following references to the registry are relative to: LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\SERVICES. You can use the default values under CMRAID\PARAMETERS in the registry for all ServeRAID adapters supported by the CMRAID device driver. The two tuning settings under CMRAID\PARAMETERS are: o DefaultCmdQueueDepth - Max # of simultaneous commands o DefaultIntMask - Interrupt Mask When multiple devices are using the CMRAID device driver, you can create optional keys below the CMRAID\PARAMETERS that describe each device. Cmraid \-- Parameters \-- device0 \-- device1 \-- device2 \-- ... The device keys take the form of device0, device1, and so on. The existence of the DeviceCmdQueueDepth and DeviceIntMask settings in the device# keys takes precedence over the default settings in the PARAMETERS key. Two volatile keys are set for each device during startup. These keys are slotID and BusId. You can use these keys to help locate a specific device that you want to tune. Please note that the device driver does not account for internal devices, which means that a slot number might not make sense because it might be associated with an internal device on the system board. However, once the first device is found, the numbers for the other devices are relative. You can use the CMRAID Configuration Program in the Control Panel to set a different DeviceCmdQueueDepth or DeviceIntMask value for each device, or to set these values consistent for all devices. The DefaultCmdQueueDepth or DeviceCmdQueueDepth value specifies the number of simultaneous I/O commands that can be sent to the ServeRAID adapter. The default queue-depth size (0x20) indicates 32 simultaneous commands, and the maximum queue-depth size (0x78) indicates 120 simultaneous commands. NOTE: If you specify an invalid queue-depth size, the device driver uses the default setting, which is 32. The DefaultIntMask or DeviceIntMask value specifies the microprocessor that will handle interrupts for a ServeRAID adapter. This value is a bit map. The least significant bit represents the first microprocessor in the system. The following are valid values: 0x1 Processor 1 (0001) 0x2 Processor 2 (0010) 0x4 Processor 3 (0100) 0x8 Processor 4 (1000) The default setting (0x1) specifies that only the first microprocessor in the system is eligible for interrupts. If you specify an invalid value, the device driver will use its default setting, which is microprocessor 1 (0x1). To achieve the best performance results, you should distribute the adapter interrupts and I/O loads evenly among all of the available microprocessors in the system. You can use the NT performance monitoring program (Perfmon) with the DISKPERF feature activated to measure the I/O load. To use the Perfmon program: 1. Type the following at the command prompt: DISKPERF -Y 2. Press Enter. 3. Restart the system. Then, use the PhysicalDisk object in Perfmon. After you obtain your measurements, you can turn off the disk performance feature as follows: 1. Type the following at the command prompt: DISKPERF -N 2. Press Enter. 3. Restart the system. ____________________________________________________________________ 4.0 Using the CMRAID and IPSRAIDN Miniport Device Drivers ___________________________________________________________ This section provides instructions for switching between the CMRAID and IPSRAIDN (the standard miniport device driver) device drivers. You can not use these two device drivers simultaneously to support ServeRAID adapters. However, you might want to switch between the two device drivers periodically to measure the impact of one device driver over the other. 4.10 Registry-Key Settings --------------------------- Once registry-key settings are in place for both the IPSRAIDN and the CMRAID device drivers, you can use the instructions in section 4.20 to switch between the device drivers. The basic method to define the registry keys and settings is using the GUI-Mode Setup procedure and the SCSI-Adapter applet. Until you restart the system, the installed device driver remains active. You must understand and use the following information before you attempt to switch between the device drivers: o If the IPSRAIDN device driver is detected while installing the CMRAID device driver, the SCSI-Adapter applet might delete the IPSRAIDN registry-key settings and deactivate the IPSRAIDN device driver. After the CMRAID device driver installation completes, you might need to use the SCSI-Adapter applet in the Control Panel and the IPSRAIDN installation diskette to reenter the IPSRAIDN registry-key settings. o If the CMRAID device driver is installed and running when you install the IPSRAIDN device driver, both device drivers might be marked as active (boot enabled). This can lead to boot failures if you attempt to restart the system prior to deactivating one of the device drivers. Please note that the IPSRAIDN device driver will not deactivate or remove the CMRAID registry-key settings. 4.20 Switching between the CMRAID and IPSRAIDN Device Drivers --------------------------------------------------------------- After you establish registry-key settings for both the IPSRAIDN and the CMRAID device drivers, you can use these instructions to switch between the device drivers. (See section 4.10 if you need more information about establishing registry-key settings.) You must complete the following three major steps to switch between the CMRAID and IPSRAIDN device drivers: 1. Confirm the registry-key settings for both device drivers. You can use the REGEDT32 to confirm registry-key settings exist for both the IPSRAIDN and CMRAID device drivers. The registry keys are located in: LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\SERVICES 2. Confirm that a system file exists for each device driver. The system file names are: cmraid.sys and ipsraidn.sys. They are located in: \\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS 3. Use the Devices applet in the Control Panel to confirm that one device driver is "Enabled" for boot and the other device driver is "Disabled". _____________________________________________________________________ 5.0 Trademarks and Notices ___________________________ The following terms are trademarks of the IBM Corporation in the United States or other countries or both: IBM Netfinity OS/2 ServeRAID Microsoft, Windows, and Windows NT are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Other company, product, and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others. THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. IBM DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND MERCHANTABILITY WITH RESPECT TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT. BY FURNISHING THIS DOCUMENT, IBM GRANTS NO LICENSES TO ANY PATENTS OR COPYRIGHTS. Note to U.S. Government Users -- Documentation related to restricted rights -- Use, duplication or disclosure is subject to restrictions set forth in GSA ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corp.